Yes, the PILOTS must pay for the companies growth, not the company. This is how twisted this industry has become. Sadly, many pilot groups buy into this and thus others see it and say, "why not ?".

“To secure the 76-seat jet flying at Horizon, we have to close the gap by becoming best-in-class in all that we do including: increasing labor productivity, lowering overhead cost and improving the operation,” he writes. “We are ready to win this flying, and I hope you share my optimism and enthusiasm.”

your guy is pretty smooth.....and his catchy quote "Lets commit to compete" is clever too....I can't see any reason why the unionized mechanics, dispatchers, flight attendants and pilots wont vote yes in a landslide win for management and the non union employees

What's happening over there is really sad. It sounds like a choice between making the final round of concessions in the race to the bottom era and extinction.

Sounds like typical IBT crooks.

???? Way to add some intelligent perspective...

The writing is on the wall. This place is doomed and it's a damn shame.

I'm an outsider paying close attention and I just don't get it. Don't these regional management teams realize that as soon as they broadcast the message that they need their pilots to degrade themselves, they are also essentially blacklisting themselves from the pool of prospective pilots? They have to know this as well as fully understand that it's not only an unsustainable strategy, it's a nail in the coffin. I'm sure we could just call them idiots but I don't believe that anyone could be that oblivious, there has to be some bigger plan at work here. Maybe that plan is smoothly winding down operations without ****ing off Alaska so they can go run the next Regional into the ground?

Edit: I also wanted to say to the management lurkers reading; Horizon used to be in my top 3 airlines for when I meet minimums... now you are completely off my list. For every pilot like me that posts, there are at least a few hundred others that just made the same decision. You guys just took yourself out of the game, it will take a few months to see it but you're going to hit a hard wall of attrition before whatever your shady plan is can come to fruition. This is sad, Horizon was respectable and even a bit iconic to the PNW, you probably could have just weathered the storm on that. People liked to fly on Horizon, nobody cared that their flight was on turboprop.

The management team believes that Alaska is so amazingly awesome people want to work here JUST so they can work for the Air Group. People like myself wanted to work here because we have a great contract with great work rules. Yeah we fly ****ty Q400s but when it comes to having the SAP bidding sytem, 17-18 days off for lineholders and great medical benefits, it's not that bad.

Well now they want to take all our work rules away from us THAT THEY AGREED TO years ago when they signed our contract.

We've been in the process of getting Comair'd ever since the ****ing bean counters at Alaska took over. They have no appreciation for the skill and service we provide (What other regional has our on time performance, yet alone a 10% profit margin?).

When we the vote the proposal down, and make no mistake we WILL vote it down, all of the jets will be going to Skywest...count on it. You might as well go there if you have your heart set on being based in Portland or Seattle.

I can only hope that every single potential regional applicant sees this thread and does not make a huge mistake. Alaska has every opportunity to turn this around, and I think they will if they see Qx has ZERO NEW HIRES.

For those of you in ground school right now; I highly suggest you get out before you get type rated so it doesn't look sketchy when you're applying to different regionals, and you definitely will want to before you get furloughed next fall.

Anyone else heard that we've already cancelled an October class due to would-be new hires dropping out? I'm curious what our hired/quit/net gain or loss numbers have been this year and how that'll change with this news...

They really are employing the old sales job. It is sales 101 to pretend to be on the side of the buyer by using cooperative language like "we" and "let's". If you go to buy a car, they'll do this, as well as try to sit on your side of the table if negotiations are becoming adversarial.